


Even Hell has Skid Row

by SaintedStars



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series), Helluva Boss (Web Series)
Genre: Angel Dust & Cherri Bomb Friendship (Hazbin Hotel), Canon-Typical Violence, Charlie Magne Tries, Cherri Is A Good Friend, Cinnamon Roll Charlie Magne, Demons, F/F, Forced Prostitution, Good Friend Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Good Friend Cherri Bomb (Hazbin Hotel), Hell, Hurt Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Little Shop of Horrors References, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, Minor Charlie Magne/Vaggie, Other, Prostitution, Song: Skid Row (Little Shop of Horrors), Songfic, Swearing, Vaggie is So Done (Hazbin Hotel), Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:01:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27215341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintedStars/pseuds/SaintedStars
Summary: Even Hell has mornings and just like on Earth, they suck all kinds of ass.Another day, another dollar, another demon that they could try and redeem. Now if only they would come through the damn door and give redemption a fucking chance! Watching the days slip by without anything to show for her efforts was enough to do a number on anyone's nerves and her's were already beginning to fray.Hell isn't the easiest place to live after all. Especially when you're already at the lowest of the low.
Relationships: Angel Dust & Cherri Bomb (Hazbin Hotel), Charlie Magne/Vaggie
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Even Hell has Skid Row

**BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-**

Charlie’s hand smacked down on the top of her alarm clock to kill the shrill ringing that had so rudely pulled her out of sleep, unearthing her head from her pillows. Behind her, Vaggie was blearily rubbing her eyes and yawning, her back arching into a long stretch. Outside, the crimson skies of Hell was beating down on the denizens below, burning the sleep-burdened eyes of the two girls.

“Ugh, Charlie, what time is it?” Vaggie asked, pushing her hair out of her face and looking around her girlfriend at the clock face.

“7 O’Clock, same as always.” Charlie replied, already out of bed and pulling off her nightclothes. She had to get up and ready for the day, even if it was just to be spent in the hopes that someone would knock on the door. Angel had slipped out in the night to get back to the Studio, not that there was anyone that could actually stop him from doing what he wanted or, but she was holding onto hope that he would show before noon this time.

“You and your early mornings Hun. I didn’t know there was a time before 9 before I met you.” Vaggie said, earning a small chuckle from Charlie. The moth had pulled on her dress and was halfway through tying up her hair.

“We both know that’s not true. 7 has always existed and you love waking up to greet the morning with me.” Charlie said, running a brush through her hair and tying off the end. Down the hall, she could vaguely hear the sound of Niffty, already hard at work clearing away the dust that had gathered in the night.

“Sadly, you’re right. Too bad there’s no one else out there who agrees.” Vaggie, now fully dressed, remarked, walking over the balcony of Charlie’s room and gazing out over the twisted combination of wasteland and cityscape that lay before them. To the left, there stood the Clocktower, it’s gradually reducing numbers a persistent reminder of how little time they had left before another purge and Heaven’s wrath decided upon them. Each day that brought another dark cloud over Charlie’s heart.

But another day was another day towards helping someone, anyone get redeemed. She could hold onto hope as long as she kept that thought in her mind, right?

Charlie joined her girlfriend at the balcony and watched the inhabitants of hell slowly beginning to come into the waking world. Shops were being opened and what little business they could drum up had to be catered to. Figures cloaked in shadow were beginning to walk the streets and the few that had retained some of the colour they’d had as humans were sticking to the backstreets. No use getting caught in someone’s crosshairs when they didn’t have the means to defend themselves.

“ _Alarm goes off at seven_

_And you start uptown…_

_You put in your eight hours,_

_For the powers that have always been.”_ Charlie said to herself, leaning back against Vaggie who had wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

“Say it, Charlie.” She said encouragingly. She knew where this was going and Charlie deserved to get one time where she could let it all out.

“ _Till it's five P.M…”_ Charlie mused, smiling back at her supportive girlfriend.

  
  
“ _Then you go,”  
  
  
“Downtown  
Where the folks are broke.” _Down below, she saw a woman in fishnets and little else take up her place at the side of the street.

_  
“Downtown  
Where your life's a joke.” _Vaggie saw two bull-headed demons turning another, smaller-looking imp into mincemeat.

 _  
“Downtown  
When you buy your token  
You go  
Home to skid row…” _They turned another and faced Charlie’s room again, wincing at the sound of screeching tires. Beneath them, two cars had narrowly avoided each other and now the owners were getting into a screaming match, hurling all manner of obscenities at each other. _  
  
  
“Yes, you go,”_ Husk remarked, taking a long drink from a flask that never seemed to empty. One of the small miracles of Hell. _  
  
“Downtown…”_ Charlie bemoaned to herself as she came down the stairs into the lobby. _  
  
  
“Where the cabs don't stop,”_ Niffty was looking as miffed as Charlie had ever seen her. Something must have happened on her way in. _  
  
  
“Downtown,”_ Vaggie echoed under her breath, slumping down on the sofa. _  
  
  
“Where the food is slop,”_ Alastor remarked, peeking out of the window with a disconcertingly hungry look in his eye. _  
  
[COMPANY]  
“Downtown,” _The two girls said together, Vaggie scooching up the couch to let Charlie sit with her. _  
  
_

 _“Where the hop-heads flop  
In the snow  
Down on Skid Row…” _Outside, their words were being embraced by the fallen souls. _  
  
  
“Uptown you cater to a million jerks  
Uptown you're messengers and  
Mailroom clerks,” _Called two imps from underneath a pile of mail that had collapsed on them. No matter how they yelled and cursed, Blitzo was too busy taking a fucking phone call from that feathered whore-monger to hear them. _  
  
_

_“Eating all your lunches at the  
Hot dog carts.” _Bemoaned a demon. He was promptly told to fuck off and take it like a man by the vendor at whose cart he was getting his food from. _  
  
_

 _“The bosses take your money  
And they break your hearts.” _Two whores, dressed in fishnets and leather jackets, chorused from the lamppost they were leaning against.

 _“Uptown you cater to a million whores,”_ One of the girls, looking around to make sure that they weren’t seen, flashed the bird at the obnoxiously lurid vision of Valentino’s Studio.

 _  
“You disinfect_ terrazzo _on their  
Bathroom floors…” _A creature similar in appearance to Niffty was decrying from the sink that he was furiously scrubbing. _  
  
_

 _“Your morning's tribulation  
Afternoon's a curse.” _Loona complained from I.M.P’s front desk, looking bored shitless. Her adopted father was looking disgusted as he tried to fend off the advances of his unwanted admirer. He didn’t care how deep the fuckwits pocket’s were, he was not doing shit with him!

 _  
“And five o'clock is even worse.”_ An explosion rocked the street and a bum lying on the pavement narrowly avoided a piece of debris that had come hurtling out of nowhere. _  
  
_

 _“That's when you go,”_ He kicked it, cursing when all that got him was an aching foot.

Cherri juggled three smaller versions of her usual toys between her fingers, thinking about where she could throw them. Then her eye caught a moving target.

“ _Where the guys are drips_ ,” She thought of that revolting cock goblin masquerading as a moth.

“ _Where they rip your slips,”_ She thought of Angel. The nights he had come to her place, bruised and fighting tears. The burns and other scars she had seen as she helped bandage his wounds.

“ _Where relationships are no go.”_ She fucking hated the lot of them. Valentino, Vox, Velvet. All three of them could go fuck themselves with the business end of a rusty trident.

_“Down on skid row_

_Down on skid row_

_Down on skid row,”_ She followed after the car, sprinting across rooftops and when it finally came to a stop, outside that weird hotel Angel had told her he was staying at, she took careful aim.

_  
“Down on skid row!”_ Angel stepped out of the vehicle and she paused, immediately noticing the sorry state he was in. Poor bitch looked like death warmed up and Cherri swore that she’d get Valentino back for every mark he’d left on her friend.

Meanwhile, Angel was nursing both his battered pride and bruised body.

Val had been ‘kind’ enough to give him a lift home from the studio but what kind of charity that was supposed to be was lost to Angel if the way that his ass and back were throbbing. The moment he’d stepped out, their car had sped off, turning some poor fuck into a splatter of blood and brain matter on the pavement.  
  
  
 _Poor! All my life I've always been poor  
I keep asking Val what I'm for  
And he tells me "Shit, I'm not sure  
Suck that guy off, bitch." _Every step felt like there was a knife pressing into his spine and the arms pressing against the spot were doing exactly jack and shit to soothe it.

 _  
“Oh, I started down here as a hooker,  
An ass on the street.” _He turned a corner, walking into an alley that he knew would take him to the Hotel.

 _  
“Down here in Hell,  
He took me in, gave me shelter, a bed  
Tons of blow and a job.” _It was just a little further and he could curl up in bed.

 _  
“Treats me like shit, calls me a slut,  
Which I am…” _The slender form of Cherri slid down a pipe and joined him, taking his arm and helping him to walk.  
  


“ _So I live…”_ He flashed her a grateful look, glad to have some of the weight taken off his feet.

 _“Downtown…”_ Cherri continued, helping him move down the street.

_“That's your home address.”_ Angel muttered, eyes fixed on the ground.

_“Ya live…”_ Slowly the hotel came into view.

_“Downtown…”_ Cherri’s arm was a constant promise of reassurance.

_When your life's a mess,”_

_“Ya live,”_ Angel lifted one free hand to brush his hair out of his eye, sniffing as the movement aggravated a nasty cut he had there.

_“Downtown…”_

_“Where depressions' just…”_

_Status Quo…”_ The friends said together, approaching the door.

_“Down on skid row…”_ The lobby was empty when they passed through, going up the stairs to Angel’s room.

_“Someone show me a way to get outta here,_

_'Cause I constantly pray I'll get outta here.”_ Cherri helped to sit him on the bed, Fat Nuggets scrambling up beside him.

_“Please, won't somebody say I'll get outta here_

_Someone gimme my shot or I'll rot here!”_ He buried his hands in his hair, his whole body curling on itself.

_“Show me how and I will. I'll get outta here_

_I’ll start climbing up hill and get outta here.”_ Cherri wasn’t sure if he even knew she was in the room anymore.

_“Someone tell me I still could get outta here,_

_Someone tell Lady Luck that I’m stuck here!”_ Angel curled onto his side and slumped on the bed, his buzz having long since worn off and the fucking self-loathing was coming on.

_“Downtown,”_ Came the echoes from the street.

_“Gee, it sure would be swell to get outta here,”_ Cherri called to him, sitting down and reaching out her hand.

_“Bid the gutter farewell and get outta here,”_ Angel, thank fuck and everything in between, replied.

_“I'd move heaven and hell to get outta skid,”_ She started pulling supplies from the box she had gotten from his bathroom. She’d known him far too fucking long not to know his habits.

_“I'll do I dunno what to get outta skid,”_ Charlie had followed them from the lobby, having heard them come in but not wanting them to see her. She listened in through the door, her chest aching.

_“But a hell of a lot to get outta skid,”_ Vaggie sighed, leaning against the wall on the opposite side.

_“People tell me there's not a way outta skid,”_ Alastor was listening from his own room, his shadows giving him perfect surveillance _._ His ever-present smile was only growing with each passing second.

_“But believe me, I gotta get outta_

_Skid Row!”_ Angel and Cherri concluded. The silence lingered there for a moment as the two friends connected over the shit hand they had been dealt, both in their previous life and now when they were residing in this literal hell hole. Cherri’s hands, so used to dealing tiny dispensers of death, were surprisingly good at applying disinfectant and applying bandaids and wrapping bandages until her friend. Angel was slowly coming back to himself, aided by the extra-strong painkillers she had handed him from the box.

Outside, the clocktower’s hands moved ever closer to the next purge.

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly never expected to write anything for these two. But then I saw a single video of Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel with Little Shop and this idea just burrowed into my brain like a tick and wouldn't leave until I had written it. Also if you listen to the song when you read this (which is what I highly suggest because the song is awesome), you'll notice some parts are missing. That's because I couldn't think of a way to put them in without it seeming weird or out of place. Remember they are in Hell and, as much as Charlie wishes, you just don't burst out into song. Also
> 
> The song count for this is 5 and it is all because I needed it to keep up my ideas when I was writing it.
> 
> You can always find me at SaintedStars on Tumblr and any and all comments, kudos or bookmarks are always appreciated


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